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Sabres' Pominville was letting the pressure of not scoring get to him

Fort Lauderdale, FL (WGR 550) - When Jason Pominville scored in overtime on Wednesday, it was his first goal in 21 games. The winger got off to a fast start in his return to Buffalo scoring twice on opening night against Montreal and then tallying six goals in his first 12 games. After that, he had just three goals in 51 games.

Pominville had seven shots on goal against the Lightning and was robbed twice by Andrei Vasilevskiy before netting the game winner.

After one of those saves, Pominville looked to the sky in frustration. That’s a move you won’t see him do very often. Pominville said, “You’ve gotten to know me over the years and I was definitely getting a little frustrated, but I don’t want to show my emotions, I don’t want to let my teammates know, but yes, it was starting to get to me, I was getting looks and wasn’t able to put them in, but it was nice to get out there and pull through for the guys.

“I know I can contribute offensively and I’ve always done it, but I was brought in here for that reason and for other reasons. The offense probably wasn’t the only thing, so I want to make sure I bring the other things to the table as well, but to be able to contribute is nice and it’s definitely nice to get a winner."

Pominville is on the downside of his career, so goals aren't going to come like they used to. He said, "I don’t want to only focus on offense, I want to bring the other things whether it’s habits, practice, try to change the culture and get moving in the right direction as a team and as an organization, so even though I wasn’t producing, I want to stick to the other things that I did well.”

Chad Johnson has been getting a lot more playing time lately. The reason he has is because he’s been playing so well. He has beaten maybe the best two teams in the Eastern Conference four times since Feb. 10. His goals against in this last six games is 1.70.

It’ll be interesting to see how long Phil Housley rides Johnson or if he’ll go back to Robin Lehner against the Panthers.

New father Kyle Okposo is supposed to be joining the team here to play on Friday.

Housley gave the team Thursday off and they’ll be back on the ice for the morning skate on Friday.